HARROGATE RAILWAY 3 LANCASTER CITY 1

TEAM NEWS: Phil Sharpe made two changes to the team that had been victorious 48 hours earlier. In came newcomer Andy Jackson for Phil Mitchell (bench) and Ben Hardy replaced Liam Gray.

It didn’t take long for the game to warm up as Rail set about Lancaster City with some juicy tackles that we’re a little over the top. Within 5 minutes of the start Paul Stansfield and Nicky Darker found themselves in the referee’s notebook for two late tackles which left the players needing treatment. Although it wasn’t pretty to watch this seemed to upset our visitors and so much so that Rail took a surprise lead on 10 minutes. An innocuous through ball was misjudged by the defender as Paul Stansfield sneaked in behind. He had time to let the ball bounce and hit a tremendous half volley past the keeper from just on the edge of the penalty area.

HARROGATE RAILWAY 1 LANCASTER CITY 0 (10mins)

Within moments of the restart Rail nearly made it two. Chris Ward made a bad challenge on Andy Jackson and was the third player of the afternoon to be shown a yellow card. From the resulting free-kick on the right hand side it was met by a firm header from Danny Thirkell. It looked a goal all the way but he was unfortunate to see his header crash against the angle of the crossbar and post and out of danger. Suddenly Lancaster came back into the game and was starting to pose a threat up front. With their top goal scorer still recovering from an injury sustained in last week’s game it was up to Max Rothwell and last week’s two goal hero Mike Rushton. Rail lost James Nettleton through injury and was replaced by Aaron Hollingdrake with Aaron going upfront with Ben Jones and Danny Thirkell dropping back to right back and within moments of the change Lancaster were back on level terms. Dan got on the wrong side of the attacker and his low driven cross from the right evaded all the Rail defenders and fell to the feet of Mike Rushton at the far post.  He managed to dig the ball from under his feet and lifted his shot past Manny before the defenders had chance to close him down.

HARROGATE RAILWAY 1 LANCASTER CITY 1 (31mins)

The game for the remaining minutes seemed to die down a little with probably Lancaster edging it and looking more likely to score again. The only thing of interest was the referee’s strange decision after 30 minutes of play was to ask Danny Thirkell and a Lancaster player to remove their cycling shorts as they didn’t match their team’s colours. Surely that should have been done before the start of play?  After all the confusion play resumed and the referee eventually blew his whistle for half-time after two minutes of injury time.

HALF-TIME: HARROGATE RAILWAY 1 LANCASTER CITY 1

Lancaster started the second-half on the front foot but with Rail standing firm at the back and Manny been in commanding form despite the insults from the away fans they were finding it difficult to break through. In fact Rail caught Lancaster out with a breakaway attack that they would have been proud off. A through ball left Aaron Hollingdrake in a leg chase with a defender although the defender seemed slightly in front of Aaron. Aaron put his arm out to stop himself falling over which in turn left the defender on the floor. Despite the appeals for a free-kick from the Men in Blue Aaron took a touch and fired a low shot into the net past the stranded goalkeeper to put Rail in front again.

HARROGATE RAILWAY 2 LANCASTER CITY 1 (52mins)

Despite all the appeals the goal stood and Rail had just over half an hour left to hold out and gain a great victory. Tempers were getting a little frayed as Lancaster became more and more frustrated with the referee’s decisions and Rails dogged defence. Dan Verity was a little unlucky to become the fourth player to end up with a yellow card as he slid into a tackle and clearly got the ball. There was contact on the follow through but the referee deemed it to be a late tackle. With Lancaster pushing forward Rail were looking dangerous on the counter-attack and all it needed was the final ball to find its target. Mid way through the half there were wholesale changes as Phil Mitchell came on for Ben Jones and Lancaster making a triple substitution with Mike Stringfellow, Dominic Ward & Jerome Watt coming on for Guy Heffernan, Mark Jackson & Max Rothwell. Moments later Lancaster’s attempt to get back into the game was made more difficult as Chris Ward saw his second yellow of the afternoon for dissent and left them down to 10 men. This made them more determined and continued to push forward in search of an equaliser. Rail’s defence was holding on and with Manny marshalling his troops the tackles kept flying in and every aerial threat was dealt superbly by Dan Verity and Chris ‘Hotdog’ Jenkinson. The midfield were all working hard to keep the threat of Lancaster out and despite one or two dodgy moments they were holding on. Again Rail were a threat as Lancaster pushed more players forward which left gaps at the back. Time was running out and Phil Sharpe decided to bring on Steve Ball in place of Andy Jackson for the last few minutes. However the last few minutes turned out to be 6 as the referee added them on as he indicated injury-time. There was hope for Lancaster but with half of those minutes gone there hopes were finally dashed by a stunning goal from substitute Phil Mitchell. Dan Thirkell had time to thread a great ball through to Phil and without a moment’s hesitation he struck a wonderful 30 yard shot over the keeper and into the back of the net to send the players crazy as he was mobbed by everyone.

HARROGATE RAILWAY 3 LANCASTER CITY 1 (93mins)

The remaining 3 minutes seemed like an eternity as the referee finally blew his whistle at five to five for the end of the game.

FULL-TIME: HARROGATE RAILWAY 3 LANCASTER CITY 1

BOOKINGS: 5 – Paul Stansfield, Nicky Darker & Dan Verity (Rail) Chris Ward x 2 (Lancaster)

ATTENDANCE: 131

RAIL MAN OF THE MATCH: JAMES MANN

PLAYERS MARK OUT OF 10:

James Mann – 9

James Nettleton – 7

Tom Jackson – 7

Nicky Darker – 8

Dan Verity – 7

Chris Jenkinson – 8

Andy Jackson – 7

Paul Stansfield – 9

Ben Jones – 7

Dan Thirkell – 8

Ben Hardy – 7

SUBS: Aaron Hollingdrake – 8, Phil Mitchell – 7, Steve Ball – not on long enough